THE ORANG ASLI AND THE CONTEST FOR RESOURCES:

International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), Copenhagen, and the Center for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC), Subang Jaya.

as IWGIA Document No. 95.

May 2000

285+xxvi pages

26 tables; 3 maps; 81 plates

15cm x 22.5 cm

limp cover

The Orang Asli and the Contest for Resources traces the history of the
indigenous minority peoples of Peninsular Malaysia from early times to the
present; from when the Orang Asli were an independent and autonomous people,
to a situation where others are seeking to control their lives today. It
argues that development programmes and policies for the Orang Asli, cloaked
in a policy of assimilation and integration into the mainstream society,
have a single ideological objective: to enable the control of the Orang Asli
and to control their traditional territories and resources.

The moves to diminish Orang Asli autonomy and the concurrent contest for
their traditional territories and resources invariably cause much social
stress in Orang Asli communities. The Orang Asli and the Contest for
Resources describes how this common experience helped the development of an
Orang Asli political consciousness beyond the local level such that a new
Orang Asli indigenousness emerged as a political strategy for more effective
affirmation of their rights.

However, because aspirations and motivations vary between individual Orang
Asli, the state is able to exploit such differences and set the Orang Asli
against themselves, especially in the contest for resources. Towards this
end, The Orang Asli and the Contest for Resources examines how the Malaysian
state continues to effectively control the Orang Asli as a people and, as a
consequence, exercise control over their traditional territories and
traditional resources as well.

Note: In Malaysia, cheques in foreign currencies are subject to local and
home bank commissions totalling USD12.00. Hence if you wish to send personal
cheques directly to COAC SERVICES, please add USD12.00 to the rates given
above.

All books will be despatched from Malaysia.

For enquiries (and negotiations), contact:
coac@maxis.net.my

Health Disease and Survival

A new book written by Adela Baer and published by COAC.

The book has over 200 pages including photos and tables, published Feb 1999. Topics include: Health and health surveys by aboriginal subgroup. Demography. Genetics. Timelines on health research, The history of malaria in Malaysia. Malaria, genes and culture. Orang Asli nutrition. Maternal health. Survival in the past and today. The future health of Orang Asli. The Seboi tragedy.

Reviews

Zuzanna Olszewska, in Cultural Survival Quarterly, Winter, 1999
issue : The book...shows how an understanding of Orang Asli health...is vital to
their future welfare. [It] is an important step forward in...two
important areas: the existing medical knowledge about the Orang Asli, and
the way the government fails to apply that knowledge for the purposes of
better health care for them.

R. K. Dentan, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Sept., 1999:
...indispensable for anyone interested in the genetics and health of
Orang Asli...The raw numbers...contitute a dismal indictment of the health
services the Malaysian government provides Orang Asli. Baer's rather dry
scientific style, almost completely devoid of polemics, makes it all the
more clear how bad things are.

George Appell, President of the Borneo Research Council: ...splendid book...an important work!

Earl of Cranbrook: ...I found [it] fascinating...

Vanessa Griffin, Coordinator, Gender and Development Programme, Asia
Pacific Development Center, Kuala Lumpur: ...[The book] is very good, but the health situation is appalling. [About]
women's health, and maternal and child health, there is a lot of
information and all of it is dire...The book is very well documented and
spare in its writing, which makes it all the more clear how bad things
are....

All profits from the book go towards the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns - COAC.

To order the book please send a draft drawn in Malaysia payable to COAC SERVICES for RM 35.00 to: Centre for Orang Asli Concerns, PO Box 3052, 47590 Subang Jaya, Malaysia. OR send a cheque for $12 payable to A BAER, Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, Corvallis Oregon, 97331-2914 USA.

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